Tarquini takes first pole of the season
Gabriele Tarquini dug deep on his final qualifying lap to pip his SEAT team-mate Yvan Muller to pole position for this weekend's first World Touring Car race at Valencia
Reigning champion Muller was heading the train of diesel Leons after the first runs of Q2, but Tarquini's last-gasp effort found another quarter of a second to claim his first pole position of the season.
Muller held on to second spot and will share the front row with Tarquini for race one tomorrow. Jordi Gene and Tiago Monteiro posted the third and fourth quickest times to lock out the top four places for SEAT.
Augusto Farfus was the only BMW to make it through to the top 10 shootout and the Brazlian ended up fifth, six tenths of a second shy of Tarquini's time.
Alain Menu led the Chevrolets in sixth, ahead of independent leader Tom Coronel, with the Chevrolets of Rob Huff and Nicola Larini sandwiching Rickard Rydell's SEAT to complete the top 10.
The remaining four factory BMWs failed to progress beyond Q1 and will fill 11th to 14th places on the grid.
Pos Driver Car Q1 Q2 1. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT 1m45.888s 1m44.414s 2. Yvan Muller SEAT 1m45.516s 1m44.646s 3. Jordi Gene SEAT 1m45.790s 1m44.826s 4. Tiago Monteiro SEAT 1m45.542s 1m44.896s 5. Augusto Farfus BMW 1m45.638s 1m45.080s 6. Alain Menu Chevrolet 1m45.681s 1m45.314s 7. Tom Coronel SEAT 1m45.949s 1m45.423s 8. Robert Huff Chevrolet 1m46.038s 1m45.440s 9. Rickard Rydell SEAT 1m45.424s 1m45.538s 10. Nicola Larini Chevrolet 1m45.854s 1m45.702s 11. Jorg Muller BMW 1m46.126s 12. Alex Zanardi BMW 1m46.221s 13. Sergio Hernandez BMW 1m46.250s 14. Andy Priaulx BMW 1m46.331s 15. Felix Porteiro BMW 1m46.426s 16. Stefano D'Aste BMW 1m46.525s 17. Mehdi Bennani SEAT 1m46.615s 18. Marin Colak SEAT 1m46.633s 19. Tom Boardman SEAT 1m47.439s 20. Vito Postiglione BMW 1m47.462s 21. Franz Engstler BMW 1m47.547s 22. Viktor Shapovalov Lada 1m47.901s 23. Kristian Poulsen BMW 1m48.492s 24. Kirill Ladygin Lada 1m48.530s 25. Jaap van Lagen Lada no time
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